


Crash Course

by Drappersky



Category: Dredd (2012), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Enemies to Lovers, Force-Sensitive Techie, Kylo Ren Angst, M/M, Matchmaker Techie, Past Abuse, Post-Canon, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Slow Build, Smuggler Armitage Hux, Smuggler Kylo Ren, Techie as Hux's brother, prisoner kylo ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 20:05:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9088291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drappersky/pseuds/Drappersky
Summary: Kylo Ren crash lands on a dead moon only to become the prisoner of the now smuggler General Hux and his brother Techie. Slow build, Enemies to lovers.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [secondgoddess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/secondgoddess/gifts).



> Made for Secondgoddess on tumblr as part of verymerrykylux Secret Santa. I hope you like it :)

Ren slowly pulled himself up out of the sticky clutches of unconsciousness and assessed the damage to his body. He had failed his mission. It had been a year since Star Killer exploded and his Master had sent him out to deal with a growing scavenger problem in the outer systems that they couldn’t seem to pinpoint. He had flown out immediately to find and exterminate whoever dared to oppose his Master and the First Order, but he had not found any sign of human or alien life during his search. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a group of x-wing fighters of undefined origin blew his engines out from under him. Fortunately, he had been close enough to a dead moon to angle his smoking ship into a crash landing rather than breaking up in space. 

His body was sore, uncomfortable and his shoulder hurt like Sith spit. He was sure he had broken open the saber scar from that rogue Stormtrooper again, but he was not dead. Shifting to relieve the pressure on his arm, he noticed there were binders on his wrists. This would not have worried him one bit, since binders were easy to open with the Force, except that when he tried exerting his will on the offending restraints the Force slipped through his fingers like water. 

“H-he’s awake.” A soft hesitant voice Ren could not identify, whispered. 

Finally his eyes snapped open and he was definitely not in the smoldering wreckage of his ship. He was propped up in the corner of a small, dark room that smelled of dirt, metal and oil. Two people were watching him; one was tall and clearly in charge, his hand firmly settled on his blaster. The other man’s posture made him look smaller and he was almost hidden behind the first, but he stared at Ren through long lank hair with the oddest deep blue eyes. 

He couldn’t feel either one’s presence through the Force. The Force was still around him, running through him, but as he tried to reach out and bring it to bear on anything outside himself it would not bend to his will. In fact, it seemed to ignore him completely.

“Hello, Ren.” The first man said, stepping forward. He knew that voice, the hard clipped edge, the disdain directed at him. Looking into two cold chips of ice, Kylo came face to face with a dead man. 

“Hux?” he gasped. He had been sure Snoke had killed him after the disaster of Star Killer Base. Hux disappeared after the incident and no one had acted surprised. 

Then again, this man standing before him looked entirely different from the man he remembered. He may have been General Hux at one time, but Ren had no clue who he was now. The mismatched garb he sported reminded Ren of the scum his father used to like to make deals with when he was young, and although Hux’s hair was still red, it fell forward, longer and unrestrained into his eyes. The rest of his face was covered in a full beard, making him look much older, rough and wild. His rigid military posture seemed to be the only holdover from his time with the First Order. 

“Where am I? Ren snarled. “What have you done?” He struggling against the binders and tried again to harness the Force to free himself. He fueled his powers with his anger and pain as Snoke had taught him, but nothing happened.

“Clever devices, aren’t they?” Hux said, casually gesturing at the restraints, “They contain the Force abilities of the wearer without totally getting rid of their connection. There are no messy side effects, like insanity, that can happen with extended use of Force-dampening injections.” The corner of Hux’s mouth twitched up as he watched Ren’s fruitless attempts to escape.

“You are now my prisoner and without your oh-so-special Force, you will be quite easily handled. We are hidden in a place that has no name, with the best security and cloaking that ill-gotten gains and genius minds can contrive. Snoke may have sent you to finish me off, but there is no way I’m going to let that happen. I will not lose all I have made again to your temper tantrums. You better settle in, Ren. The only way you are leaving here is dead.”

Hux left with Ren cursing his name. His brother Brendol, who after being kidnapped and enslaved at a young age would only answer to the name “Techie”, followed him out. 

“He seemed awfully shocked to see you, Armie.” Techie murmured. 

“Yes, I’m sure Ren was happy that I disappeared and realizing I was not as dead as he wished must be alarming.” Hux had evaded his would-be execution with bribery, a few loyal friends and by killing anyone who got in his way. 

He had not told Techie exactly how hard it had been to leave the First Order alive. Hux had gone into hiding with his brother immediately afterward. He set up this hideout for Bren to live in while he was still a high-ranking officer of the Order. The second he had enough influence and resources, he had saved Techie from enslavement and had this very bunker built to keep him safe from anyone else who would try to hurt him. Now they lived here together on a dead moon, doing black market smuggling and supplying along with sophisticated hacking and security for less than savory characters.

They had become quite popular recently for their ruthless business services and quality work. Hux had started the enterprise from the bottom up. He used contact info that Techie obtained from managing his captor’s data bases to find their first customers and expanded from there. 

“Ren has been a pain in my side since the moment I met him. Now we have to keep him here.” Hux sighed, disgruntled. “Promise me you will keep a safe distance. He is wildly unpredictable and dangerous.” Techie nodded his head, but had no intention of leaving their new prisoner alone. Techie was not supposed to interact with Kylo Ren, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t watch him. 

\------------

Seeing as the work he did took no time at all to finish and Armie was always busy, he spent a lot of time considering Ren. 

Techie spent almost all of his extra time in the same room as Ren since the bunker was rather small, but the man only had eyes for Hux, hate-filled angry eyes. Hux made Ren change out of his long black robes soon after he arrived, providing him with the same kind of slapdash outfits they wore. He didn’t look nearly so menacing without his Sith-like clothes, but the thing that Techie was surprised to see were the myriad of scars all over his body as he stripped off his dirty bloodstained robes. He knew Ren was a warrior, but the patterning and placement of the scars reminded him distinctly of the mutilation inflicted on him by MaMa. No one would have been able to tell he had such extensive scarring under his dark body-covering garb. Techie used the same tactics to hide his own scars, never wearing anything short-sleeved.

After the first couple weeks of obviously trying to plan an escape attempt or stab Armitage, Ren settled down into a bored malaise. He still intended to get away from what he considered a trap and he really did seem to dislike Armitage, but Techie felt that if handled properly, Ren could be more than just a prisoner and maybe even helpful. It was true that Ren had a lot of anger and was frustrated more often than not, but Techie found it was usually directed inwardly and at his perceived inadequacies rather than at other people. He needed a constructive outlet, a feeling of, if not belonging, then acceptance.

“Armitage?” Techie felt like he was always interrupting something important when he talked to his brother. “Can we talk about Ren?” 

“What is he up to now?” Hux asked.

“I think the same kind of things that happened to me may have happened to Ren. I would bet money that Snoke was just as manipulative and abusive toward Ren as MaMa was to me.”

Hux knew Techie was very good at reading peoples’ intentions; he even had vague premonitions at times. Techie just called it intuition, no matter how consistently accurate he seemed to be. At times it even made him think of Ren’s Force abilities, but Hux refused to accept that Ren and Techie were the same in any way.

“You are nothing like Ren. He revels in battle and blood, he acts before he thinks, he is a child in the body of a man.” Hux’s arguments didn’t put Techie off.

“Everyone reacts differently under long-term torture. Physically, he is strong and he was made to be menacing, while I fade into the background. Mentally, he was broken a long time ago. Although I may have lost parts of myself, I hung on.” Hux was still unconvinced that Ren had any redeeming qualities.

“I really don’t think he wants to kill you anymore. He needs a purpose, under all the anger and impulsive destruction, he’s eager to please. He is very protective of what he considers his. He really wants to feel needed more than anything and Snoke was giving him that.  


You and Ren are a lot alike in that sense.” Armitage looked frustrated at the comparison. “Give him something to do here, he may surprise you.” 

“That is exactly what I’m worried about.” Hux said, rubbing his eyes, but looking at Techie’s hopeful, worried face, he knew he’d lost this battle.

\-------------

Hux didn’t trust anyone but Techie. Rightly so after Star Killer, but it was hard to run the size operation Hux had built with only two people who really knew what was going on. Although Hux did hire others for grunt work and transport, he handled almost all the business himself. 

He didn’t like letting people into the bunker he and Techie inhabited, but that didn’t mean there weren’t things that needed to be done inside. Since Ren had to stay in the complex as Hux’s prisoner and since Techie wanted to give him a chance, Hux decided to leave some small things for Ren to do in the room where he was being kept. If he was so inclined, he could fix them, but it wouldn’t be a big deal if they got destroyed. The first five or six things did. Ren was stubborn as fuck and not interested in doing anything that Hux wanted, but eventually he seemed to decide that fixing the things left by Hux was more interesting than breaking them into unusable pieces. 

As it turned out, Ren was not only good at everyday repairs, but also at fixing old ships and droids. After proving himself with small movable things beyond all expectations, Hux grudgingly let him outside to do repairs on all the half-broken, cobbled together things they’d been using for their operation. 

Kylo had always fanboyed over his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker and fixing things was how he had first felt connected to him. Their family droid, C3P0, was even made by his grandfather, but after Snoke took him, Darth Vader’s power and the dark side became the only things he thought about.

Hux’s brother kept an eye on him to the point that he was only alone when he slept. He was quiet and skiddery and had strange bionic eyes. Techie was definitely Hux’s weakness, but Ren ended up liking him. He was kind of like a weird, younger, shyer version of Hux.

Sometimes when Ren got stuck on finer tuning and programming in droids and ship navigation systems Techie helped out and also made his binders easier to work with while still locked together. During one of these times, Ren ended up talking to Techie, instead of both of them working in silence. 

“You know, Hux doesn’t trust me and you shouldn’t either.” 

“I don’t trust you,” Techie replied, looking up from the wires he’d been twisting together, “if that makes you feel better. You’re still way too cloudy, but I feel we maybe have more in common than is apparent. I can’t quite see how things turn out yet, but there’s a lot of potential.” The way Techie talked made Ren wonder if he might be a type of force sensitive, but with the dampeners on Ren couldn’t tell definitively. 

Hux had work to do and left Techie and Ren alone most of the time, but he found himself watching them more and more often in the surveillance cameras that Techie had set up around the compound. The cameras were able to pick up amazing detail. Usually he used them for ship ID and facial recognition of unwanted guests, but that’s not how he was using them now.

He realized his eyes were tracing over the scars on Ren’s body when Kylo striped down to his undershirt and pulled his hair back into a ponytail. He caught himself wondering how the different textures would feel, thought about running his fingers over the one that had been agitated in the crash, which was pink and delicate. By the end of each day Kylo would be dirty, with oil smeared on his hands and face, sweat glistening in the artificial lighting. 

It was not Hux’s fault that less than business-like thoughts ran through his head. He had been too long without certain outlets and he was under a lot of stress from all the new business deals he’d been making. No, Hux shook his head, clearing it of distracting thoughts, this was not the time to get sloppy. Ren had brought everything Hux worked for in the Order down around his ears, one wrong move and Hux was sure it would happen again.

The only personal contact they had was when Ren successfully fixed something and Hux inspected it for sabotage. Ren’s eyes never left him when he was in the room. He figured that Ren was thinking of ways to kill him, but Techie generally picked up on those thoughts. Techie watched Kylo closely, but never brought any such issues to Hux’s attention. 

\--------------

A couple of months into their arrangement, a new dodgy group of space pirates came looking for a deal on black-market weapons. Hux knew exactly the type of alien rabble they were and figured a little extra muscle and intimidation would smooth the transaction. 

Hux walked into the cargo bay where Ren was working on recalibrating a hovercart. Kylo’s eyes widened in surprise as Hux separated the binders to free both of Ren’s hands. They could now be hidden under jacket sleeves and while Ren wouldn’t look like a prisoner, Hux still controlled his Force abilities.

“I’m giving you a chance to make this work.” He said, throwing a blaster with no energy cartridge to Ren. He had confiscated Ren’s lightsaber when they found him in his crashed ship and he still didn’t trust Kylo with any real weapon. 

“We are going to meet some new customers and I need some extra muscle. If things go well, you might have a future in this business.” All Ren had to do was stand there and look dangerous; that shouldn’t be too hard.

Ren nodded his head, hooked the blaster onto his belt and followed Hux to the meeting, but Hux had gotten way more than just extra muscle by inviting Ren along. The initial discussions had gotten heated with people fingering blaster triggers and eyeing up things that were not for sale and then Ren stepped in, defusing the situation. Hux had no idea where Kylo had learned to negotiate with lowlifes or gained people skills, but he demonstrated both during the meet-up. In fact, he was almost charming in an aggressive, overly possessive way. Hux was a confident, competent and dangerous man, but there was a certain finesse to dealing with low-life scum that only came with practice and Ren had a way of making any deal seem like gold. 

After the first deal was settled Ren was, for all intents and purposes, part of the company as both a mechanic and second-tier deal negotiator. Hux genuinely found him useful and Kylo seemed more content in his new role than Hux thought possible. 

Ren liked watching Hux work now that he was free to do things without constant supervision. He was confident, in control and possibly a little crazy. Ren never knew Hux was anything other than big talk and pretentious airs. Watching as Hux unblinkingly used a sniper rifle to kill a man trying to steal from him was sexy as fuck. Kylo had always been drawn to men with power who reveled in bloodlust and it was very troubling how attractive he found Hux. 

Ren felt too much like his father without Snoke’s influence and it rankled how easily he fell into the role of a smuggler. Unlike Han who lost everything smuggling, Hux was doing very well and aside from the verbal fights they would get into, Ren found himself almost happy to be working with Hux and Techie.

\------------

As Techie sat at his desk one afternoon Hux noticed that he had a bandage covering his forearm which hadn’t been there in the morning. 

“What happened, how did you get hurt?” 

“Hum?” Techie replied, engrossed in his computer. 

“Your arm, what happened?” Looking at the bandage on his arm like he’d forgotten it was there, Techie answered, 

“Oh, I was helping Ren steady a turbine and it slipped and scraped up my arm.” Anger at Ren over his careless misuse of his brother filled Hux. 

“I knew he would put you in some kind of danger with you spending so much time around him.” Hux railed. Techie looked shocked and confused. 

“No Armie, that’s not what happened at all.” Techie corrected him. “I lost my grip and the turbine fell towards me. Ren was able to redirect it so it didn’t crush me and then he patched up the scrape I got afterwards.” Hux was indignant that he had read the situation wrong, but when Techie suggested inviting Ren for dinner as a thank you he agreed. 

Ren had been eating the slop from the cantina and Hux’s invitation for real food seemed too good to be true. Techie had decided to cook a nice meal for the three of them, since Hux burnt everything he tried to make. Ren arrived a little early and he and Hux were stuck waiting at the small table together. 

Techie appeared with a fragrant roast which he placed in front of both men, purposefully bumping over his brother’s caf. It spilled and dripped off the table onto Hux’s lap. Making him pull away till he was plastered up against Ren’s side who was sitting next to him. Warmth spread throughout his body from the point of contact, and he leaned in for a couple of seconds too long enjoy the sensation. Coming back to himself he realized his laps in control blushing beet red the rest of the meal was extremely awkward and tense.

\---------

It was easier to just concentrate on work than to think about Ren, easier to be mad at him when Kylo was a Knight of Ren instead of living with him and his brother. Since the night they had dinner together Ren seemed to be accidentally touching Hux more often. It might be his imagination, but every time they were in the same room Kylo found some way to at least brush by him. Every time made him feel that same warmth and a static charge jumped between them, making him pause and run a hand over the spot where they had touched. Ren kept giving him these weird lingering looks.

Hux finally decided to confront Ren. “Your actions are totally inappropriate as my prisoner. What ever it is you’re trying to accomplish by distracting me needs to stop right now.” 

“Your prisoner?” Ren scoffed setting down what he had been fixing to stand in front of Hux. “I haven’t been your prisoner for months, ever since you separated my binders and let me work on the ships I could have left any time I want to.” 

“Oh, really Ren?” Hux asked coolly, his back ramrod straight. “Then why haven’t you?” 

Ren didn’t look like he was going to answer and Hux was not going to waste any more of his time on Kylo if that’s how he felt. Turning away to leave, he was stopped by Ren’s hand grabbing his wrist. Kylo pulled him close so they were standing chest to chest, Hux was confused angry as he tried to pull away. Ren’s eyes flicked down to his lips. All of a sudden he found it hard to breathe as Ren’s thumb started rubbing small circles into his wrist.

“You…” He whispered, their lips a hair’s breadth apart.

Suddenly they were plunged into darkness, which was immediately replaced with emergency red. An alarm blared in the distance and they could hear yelling from within the compound. The bunker was being attacked! Hux immediately switched to his battle mindset.

“Techie, we need to get the security systems back up.” 

“Y-Yes, but I’ll have to get to the computer hub and do it manually after that power outage.” 

“Fine. Ren, go with him while I deal with these intruders.” Hux rallied the guards into a group and headed toward the sound of fighting to try and keep them from getting farther into their stronghold. 

All the security systems had failed after the power was cut and the emergency generator kicked in. Techie swore as he realized he’d need to totally reboot the mainframe to get it working again. He had no idea the programming had such a huge flaw. It had never been used in this kind of situation before. Rebooting everything as quickly as possible, Techie was already coming up with a way so it would never happen again. 

Kylo was fighting the raiders that had broken into the computer room, but without a real weapon they were almost too much for him. His fighting style was deadly and he was a large formidable man, but scrap metal and hydro wrenches to subdue over five mercenaries was just not effective. 

Techie had more power over the complex than anyone would guess, once his computers whirred back to life. No, he was not a fighter, but he was by no means helpless. He was able to trap most of the would-be assassins by closing blast doors and activating well-placed ray shields. He just needed a little more time to contain them all, but he noticed that Ren was losing ground against the large group he was fighting. 

Techie wirelessly released Ren’s binders, freeing him to use the Force. He was not sure Armitage would have approved, but this was not the time to quibble over details. Kylo’s senses expanded as the binders fell away. He gathered the Force, using it to throw the men off their feet and call his saber to him. 

Hux had kept Kylo’s lightsaber at his side ever since he confiscated it. When the saber flew off his belt, he panicked a little. He knew Techie and Ren were together and it was apparent that the assassins had gotten in more than one entrance. Would Ren use the distraction to escape or were he and Techie in real peril? Hux felt a spike of desperation as he killed the people he was fighting with a focus so precise that nothing stood in his way. He ran to where Kylo and his brother were, all the while imagining a hundred horrible scenarios.

Ren’s lightsaber hummed menacingly through the air as he finished off the last piece of scum with a blade through the heart. Hux’s eyes swept the room looking for Techie, finding him hiding under his work desk, just finished with herding the last of the intruders into a holding room. Hux got down on his knees, making Techie look at him, and took stock of his appearance to make sure he was okay. Concluding that he was fine, Hux hugged him tight to his chest and then scolded him for his recklessness. 

“I told you Armie, Kylo is very protective. There was no need to worry.” 

Hux looked up at Ren. He certainly was striking after the battle with his red lightsaber glowing, his dark hair escaping from its tie. Blood was spattered on the ground around him from the bodies at his feet. In the heat of a battle won, with Ren’s confession still fresh in his mind, Hux threw his reservations and caution to the wind and finally acted on his feelings. 

Kylo was not sure if Hux was going to club him over the head or kiss him as Armitage grabbed the front of his shirt. Their first kiss was more teeth, tongue and scratchy beard than soft lips and hesitation. In fact, it was like Hux was trying to take his frustration out on Ren’s mouth. Ren was more than surprised by the aggressiveness, but was nowhere near complaining as he responded by grabbing Hux’s hips and kissing him back just as hard. Hux pulled back for a moment, looking into Ren’s dark expressive eyes.

“You’re an idiot and I hate you.” Hux said, breathing hard against Kylo’s lips. A small smile spread across Ren’s face as he landed a quick peck right under Hux’s ear.

“I hate you, too.” 

It took them long enough, Techie thought, leaving the room when their hands started to stray. He could have cut the sexual tension with a knife whenever they had made eye contact within the last couple of weeks. He smiled as his PDA chimed, confirming the facility was secured. Sending out the clean-up order, he let everyone know that Armitage was not to be disturbed.


End file.
